Interracial marriage, part 2/Casamento interracial, parte 2

Yesterday, my introduction into the topic of interracial marriages and relationships included data and statistics. Today, I want to concentrate more on the social ideologies, significance and opinions on this subject. In Brazil, it is often assumed that interracial marriages don’t stimulate the same amount of controversy as in the United States. In general, because of the different histories of the two countries, I would agree, at least on the surface. But as I have written on this blog, things in America and Brazil are often more complicated than they appear on the surface level. Over the years, I have read many Brazilian online forums, comments sections in newspapers and blogs and from what I see, many Brazilians continue to see the USA as it was 40 years ago. They continue to believe that miscegenation and interracial marriage and relationships don’t exist in America, a direct opposite reality than in Brazil where miscegenation is considered the rule rather than the exception.

There is no denying that interracial relationships are still a taboo in American society. But it is also true that interracial marriages and relationships are much more common and interracial couples experience much less hostility than these type of couples attracted 40 years ago. It is common to see interracial couples on American television programs but not as common in films, particularly the couple in which the man is black and woman is white. The internet is full of websites in which people seaching for love do not have a preference for the race of their potential partner. In comparison to the 1960s, America is definitely not the same country. In Brazil, interracial couples are much more common than in the USA but the fact remains that there are segments of Brazilian society that reject these types of relationships. Black soccer stars, musicians and others have explained in various interviews their experiences of rejection and racism when the subject is interracial romance. Black anthroplogist Kabengele Manunga of the University of Sao Paulo once revealed that he notices the stares he and his wife receive when they are in Sao Paulo. Others say that they didn’t earn the acceptance of potential white partners until they became famous or rich.

Although it is well known that interracial marriage was outlawed in many American states until 1967 and the fact that African-American men could experience extreme hostility and even death if they were suspected of having a relationship or even appearing to have interest in white woman. Even though marriages between blacks and whites were discouraged, clandestine sexual relationships between blacks and whites have occurred since the beginning of American colonization. What may be surprising is that this type of hostility and disgust toward interracial relationships was and is still common in Brazil also. Although it is true that there are more interracial couples in Brazil it doesn’t mean that these types of unions are always supported by families and friends. Authors like Eneida de Almeida dos Reis, Miriam Steffen Vieira, Florestan Fernandes, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and others have documented the disapproval many interracial couples experience, particularly in the southern, whiter states of Brazil. Similar to America history, Brazilian society perpetuated sexual stereotypes about black men and women that justified sexual exploitation and a desire for sexual relationships with black men and women but not necessarily marriage. In America and Brazil, black women are portrayed as hot, promiscuous women that offer white men more memorable sexual experiences than the “pure”, “innocent” white woman whose role is simply to be mother and wife. In America, this image of the black woman is the Jezebel; in Brazil, she is the mulatto.

Great points. Some have noted that the sexual exploitation of black women in America by white males have also sexually repressed white women as a result. Their perceived freedom is actually within the boundaries of white men. If she is too “freaky”, she moves too far on the Whore side of the Madonna-Whore continuum. Is this the same in Brasil?